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As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

nytimes.com

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Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#81

Post by ryandrake »

besogno wrote: post #45
mywittyname wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $50,000 in Fort Lauderdale is as good as $120,000 in the valley. No, it's really not -- it's actually more like $77,000[1]. With the bulk of the difference being driven by housing prices. And $77,000 is actually above the average salary for a SE in Ft. Lauderdale (according to Glassdoor: $73,000). [1] http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savings/moving-cost-of-l...

The average income of a programmer is as relevant as the average income of a musician. It will not tell you anything about how much Lady Gaga makes, or the fact that the richest man in the world is a programmer. This kind of averages could possibly be relevant for bricklayers, but even in that case I doubt it.

Lady Gaga's wealth/success is about as relevant to a musician as Bill Gates's is to a software engineer. The averages are very relevant.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#82

Post by sampo »

clarkm wrote: post #59
sampo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if you relocate to Colorado, Kansas, whatever, one occasionally needs to travel to other countries, no?

Most Americans don't have a passport and have never left the country.

And this applies to American Silicon Valley programmers, too?

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#83

Post by agentile »

bspn wrote: post #75
agentile wrote: post #67

A while back I was going through the immigration process for NZ with an immigration lawyer and had all the points necessary and was moving on to the interview phase. My wife and I ultimately decided to stop as she became pregnant and didn't want to be as far away from family. That and the flight/quarantine times that would be imposed for our dogs. Another big issue was taxes. To my knowledge NZ and USA are two countr…

NZ doesn't, but the US definitely does which is infuriating when you're considering moving to a country with a top rate of 33% and no capital gains tax! Also, there is a tax treaty between the two countries to prevent double taxation and the US exempts up to ~$100k of foreign-earned income I believe, but if you're a high earner or make serious profit on property and/or stocks you could find yourself writing a big che…

Ah, that is right, it was a while back that I researched it, and that was indeed the issue, that the double taxation would happen over $100k.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#86

Post by lj3 »

TheAlchemist wrote: post #13

That's interesting ! I'm intending to make a move with my family in near future, and we actually went to visit the northern island for 15 days last month. The country is really beautiful, and there are not a lot of people around, so you can't help but feel blessed by the surrounding nature. The people are great, probably the nicest I've ever seen (as a whole). I've noted some cons though (not blocking for us thankful…

> We were pretty much shocked because we naively thought that in such a beautiful and clean country everybody is running / biking all the time.

Surprisingly, NZ is not a good place for cycling. A guy and his wife[0] did a world cycling tour a while back and Wellington is the only place where he had serious issues with the locals[1].

[0]: http://www.pathlesspedaled.com/

[1]: https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2012/01/12/russ-from-path-le...

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#87

Post by dasil003 »

besogno wrote: post #45
mywittyname wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $50,000 in Fort Lauderdale is as good as $120,000 in the valley. No, it's really not -- it's actually more like $77,000[1]. With the bulk of the difference being driven by housing prices. And $77,000 is actually above the average salary for a SE in Ft. Lauderdale (according to Glassdoor: $73,000). [1] http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savings/moving-cost-of-l...

The average income of a programmer is as relevant as the average income of a musician. It will not tell you anything about how much Lady Gaga makes, or the fact that the richest man in the world is a programmer. This kind of averages could possibly be relevant for bricklayers, but even in that case I doubt it.

The richest man in the world is better described as a founder than a programmer if you want to correlate his occupation to his income.

Re: As New Zealand Courts Tech Talent, Isolation Becomes a Draw

#88

Post by ryandrake »

flexie wrote: post #22
ryandrake wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But, like Tulsa, I'd be worried about what happens when that tech company, which I moved myself and my family halfway around the world for, goes under and I'm out of work. I'm sure there is more than one tech company in Auckland, but how many? And how many of those will want to hire me? And out of those how many will I want to work for? And out of those, how many will pay enough where it makes sense for me to stay? T…

Wouldn't most tech guys be able to support a family working for any of the local web developers, app developers or IT departments of non tech companies that you find all over Florida, New Zealand and most of the Western world? In urban areas of Florida and New Zealand you will find these jobs everywhere within a 5 mile radius. Maybe not always so interesting or well paying as some jobs in IT corporations, but good to…

Others have also replied but yea: with all due respect to IT helpdesk support staff and Wordpress maintainers and the guy who does the web site for the local nail salon, there's no way any of that compares to a career in software. Living in a low cost of living area is nice but it's not worth that.
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